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Blashco 1.0
Blashco 1.0 is the first official incarnation of blashco productions. Co-collaborators include Extra Saucy, Freddy Productions and AM@CM. The era was immensely fruitful, and not including dozens of completely original canon, the crew produced a plethora of parodies of popular films and TV shows including The OC, Lost, James Bond, Seinfeld, The Matrix and Saw. "so good, it's bad" Blashco 1.0 began during the early years of the Youtube renassiance, and could be considered to be blashco's 'high school years,' though some of the films were produced post-graduation. Once Asher had decided to start a sketch-based webseries, he recruited many fellow students from his high school. Of these, the Forrest brothers were already making movies for almost a decade like Asher and Blake. Asher agreed to help with a small portion of production and editing on the final Freddy Productions film Lords & Tyrants. The 1.0 website, designed by Ethan Chumley, launched on October 15th, 2005. The site premiered as www.blashco.com with four available films: D-Day: The Horror, A Day In The Life Of Batman, Remote Squared, and Open House, the first film produced with the official 1.0 cast. Over 150 movies were filmed during the five years of the original blashco's lifespan, with almost 100 being released officially. Among these, the most noteworthy are The Comedy of Hamlet, A Sloppy Gelato Fest, Lost 1 and 2, The Kasamoto Series and Blashco Resurrection. Blashco 1.0 came to a close in late 2010, when a celebratorial "mashup" of sorts was released in three acts as Welcome To Eternity, utilizing much of the footage produced in the previous 5 years. Welcome To Eternity was released October 15th 2010, marking the five month anniversary of the site. Ju Ju Bloopers, a comprehensive blooper reel was released at the end of the year, being the last 1.0 film to be released. Seasons Blashco 1.0 was divided into six seasons of both standalone and episodic shorts. All the footage was shot on MiniDV and a large portion of it was edited with iMovie. Season One began Oct. 15th, 2005 and ended Dec. 24th 2005. At the time, many of the primary members had not yet joined, and less than half a dozen shorts were officially released during this time. This season is recognized mostly for the birth of recurring character Officer Malone, and the birth of The CM, a parody of Fox's The OC. Season Two lasted the entire spring semester, and is the most revered sub-era of blashco's 1.0 age. Many of the blashco regulars become more prevalent, and other less-involved members decidedly leave. Classics from season two include: the Lost series, The CM 2, Winston and Explosions. Season Three occupied the summer of 2006. By the members, it was sort of seen as the end of blashco. After a few flops in a row, the blashco crew felt they had run out of ideas. Two films from this season triggered the continuation of the website: Poseidon and Blashco Resurrection, the latter being the first scripted film produced by blashco. Season Four took up the fall semester of 2006, and primarily included shorts created for the member's high school morning announcements. It marked a relatively dramatic shift in content, though the true blashco essence still permeates with in shorts about not bullying or running in the halls. Season Five marked the final semester of high school for many of the members, though this sub-era lasts haphazardly until 2009, as many of the members were dispersed across the nation, there was a rather sparce amount of production. This season does contain the epic Comedy of Hamlet and Homer's The Iliad, as well as A Sloppy Gelato Fest and The Good The Bad and The Homecoming. Season Six essentially consists of Welcome To Eternity, Ju Ju Bloopers and other tribute films. Some unearthed footage lead to the only high definition 1.0 film to date: Jerry's Forgotten Past 3. The Crew The site was managed by Asher Refailov, who also edited many of the early films, though by the end of blashco 1.0, every member had edited at least one film. All of the crew gathered by Asher went to his high school, and were mainly close friends with him. Members during this era include: Mikey Forrest, Haydn Winston, Matt Tanner, Sean Forrest, Alex Warren, Brett Forrest, Blake Powell, Salim Khoury, Jerry Jacklich, Alex Fouss and Jordan Doig. Of these filmmakers, only Mikey, Sean, Alex Warren and Jerry were not in the same grade as Blake and Asher. Style and Approach A vast majority of the shorts made for blashco 1.0 were never scripted, and many were produced entirely, from pre-production to post-production and uploaded, in a single day. This seemed to fare well with the dadaist style of humor implemented in many of more experimental films, i.e. A Sloppy Gelato Fest, Kasamoto, Explosions, etc. Besides the weird and the outrageous, blashco produced a plethora of satires and parodies, mainly making fun of popular TV shows or movies (Lost, The OC, Mission Impossible, The Matrix, etc.) and Hollywood in general (i.e. Plot Twisty, Poseidon, Jimmy Ford). There is one more type of genre blashco experimented with in its later years to much success: appropriation, namely with The Comedy of Hamlet and Homer's The Iliad. There was never a budget, and very rarely were props purchased. The crew had four or so cameras all together, each being MiniDV, and the primary locale used for nearly every single film was Asher's House. Locations Blashco 1.0 primarily takes place in or around Blashco HQ, also known as Asher's house. This is also where the movies were edited almost exclusively. In some movies (i.e. The Matrix Retarded), render times can be seen on the computer screen while the scene takes place. Nearly all of the outside locations take place in a neighboring back yard that resembles the woods. Over a dozen movies were made at this location alone. Eventually, the crew branched out, filming at such exotic locations as the Forrest's house, Alex Warren's house, other anonymous friend's houses, and the local park. Physical Releases Three DVD sets were released in the five years of blashco's existence, all with very limited quantities (no more than 50 units per release). The first was Blashco: Unf**king Censored Vol. 1, with the tagline "Everything You Could Ever Want... And Then Some." It only included the first season of blashco with a few commentary tracks and a handful of unreleased early films. The second set was Unf**king Censored Vol. 2, with the tagline "It Doesn't Have To Make Sense... And Then Some." It was two-discs and included all of season two, a handful of unreleased films and an entire disc of commentaries. The third and final set was released between season five and season six of the 1.0 incarnation. The Zeeky Ju Ju Mahoney Collection was released in the summer of 2008, only missing out on a handful of classics. Over 60 movies on four discs, including the feature-length Lords & Tyrants, created primarily by Freddy Productions. It was by far the most professional-looking DVD set released, with customized discs, intro videos, and a slew of unreleased films. A Welcome To Eternity DVD was in the works in early 2011, but the project was scrapped due to a lack of time. LegacyCategory:1.0 Many people reflect on blashco 1.0 with nostalgic positivity, as beneath the slew of bogus and lazy productions, there was some youthful desire to continue, progress and learn. It is obvious in the first season of blashco that the editing is done by patient novices. Many of the cuts therein are poorly timed, and basically nothing was left on the cutting room floor. At this time, many of the crew members were seeing a video editing application for the first time. By season three, it is literally impossible to decipher who exactly cut these films as every member of the crew was assisting in the edits, usually taking turns each scene, though rarely some films were edited by sole members. 1.0's satire analysis of Hollywood is also among it's most revered and timeless features. Films like Poseidon, Jimmy Ford, Plot Twisty, The Kasamoto Series, Sword and Officer Henderson's Witchcraft all successfully poke fun at the tropes and cliches of big budget action films. Perhaps the best expression of this is in the Jerry's Forgotten Past saga, where each episode satirizes a different flavor of action films. The first, though entirely a joke, is a quick hitman-style dance club scene where Jerry must defeat body guard after body guard, who are all played by the same three characters. The second film does what Plot Twisty tried to do more successfully, being heavily non-linear. The third seems to poke fun at Tarantino-style action scenes and his stylistic approach. The fourth is about a magician. The remaining bulk of rarely mentioned or unreleased films are seen for what they truly are: half-assed unorganized upchucks of stolen ideas and far too many inside jokes that no one can even comprehend. Blashco is also hated by some for it's blatant sponsorship of itself. It bathes in it's shameless and believes itself to be incredibly important, almost revolutionary. The most popular films by blashco according to the internet are The Comedy of Hamlet and Homer's The Iliad, followed by Poseidon and The Magician's Nephew. The final film to be edited, though produced years earlier was Jerry's Forgotten Past 3. Since then no footage has been touched and no reunion planned. It is likely that many members of the 1.0 crew will continue to work together, as they have kept in touch, but they will never make another movie that would befit the 1.0 catalog.